Outrageous!

Miakoda

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#21
RTH said it best. But thus comes from someone getting raided by Animal Control and the LA state troopers all because some nosy busybody saw I had several "pit bulls" in my name at a veterinary clinic, thus meaning I'm a dog fighter. Nothing like being forced to stand to the side while some a-hole police officer keeps your kids in another room while they're screaming crying and terrified. Nothing like having regular books taken off your bookshelf and kept while your office is literally trashed (& no, they don't clean it up). Nothing like having almost every square inch of your property photographed, as well as having to have all your dogs photographed. I could go on... (I refused entry when they came the first time. Amazing how quickly they could get a search warrant based on a "tip" stemming from a nosy person going through veterinary records.....mind you there was NEVER a negative mark EVER, especially since I worked there for years!)

And all that was because someone thought having that many "pit bulls" meant they must be a dog fighter.

No offense Lyzelle, but okay'ing home invasions all because someone might be a dog fighter just because they have more than 2 dogs is NOT ok.

It's NO ONE's business how many dogs I own. If they are properly cared for and aren't roaming loose, get over it.
 

Miakoda

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#22
For what it's worth, I had/have over 50 APBTs alone under my name in the vet records. Considering I've owned these dogs for 14 years, bred 3 litters in all that time, AND did "pit bull" rescue (I provided the veterinary care, and fostered many of them myself), I'd say that such a number is probably on the low side. And had this ignorant dumbass of a vet actually opened records for each individual dog, she would've figured all that out before allowing my home and family be violated.

And furthermore, I comply with rabies vaccination and registration. I will not voluntarily give the stupid government even more information about me and my breed of choice and how many dogs I chose to own.
 

Lyzelle

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#23
No offense Lyzelle, but okay'ing home invasions all because someone might be a dog fighter just because they have more than 2 dogs is NOT ok.
I've never heard of home invasions for something as simple as not abiding a pet by-law. That would be the equivalent of them going through your house, grabbing your keys, and taking off with your car when they discovered you didn't have auto insurance.

Most of the time, you get a warning. Or a home check. More often a home check. And if the dogs are properly cared for, and they aren't causing a disturbance, it obviously isn't an issue, and you can go about your life.

But like I said, it works when it is enforced. Otherwise, it's a mess, as I saw in Mississippi.
 

HayleyMarie

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#24
RTH said it best. But thus comes from someone getting raided by Animal Control and the LA state troopers all because some nosy busybody saw I had several "pit bulls" in my name at a veterinary clinic, thus meaning I'm a dog fighter. Nothing like being forced to stand to the side while some a-hole police officer keeps your kids in another room while they're screaming crying and terrified. Nothing like having regular books taken off your bookshelf and kept while your office is literally trashed (& no, they don't clean it up). Nothing like having almost every square inch of your property photographed, as well as having to have all your dogs photographed. I could go on... (I refused entry when they came the first time. Amazing how quickly they could get a search warrant based on a "tip" stemming from a nosy person going through veterinary records.....mind you there was NEVER a negative mark EVER, especially since I worked there for years!)

And all that was because someone thought having that many "pit bulls" meant they must be a dog fighter.
Holy Crap, I could not even imagine.

I am so sorry that you went through that, sounds so scary. And your poor children. I would feel so violated. Hopefully that never happens to you again.
 

Laurelin

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#25
don't worry puppydog, you're not alone. It's nobody's business how many, what kind, intact or not or any other information about dogs I may or may not have.

If I abuse them, they have laws for that. If I starve them, they have laws for that. If they are loose, they have laws for that. If they bite, they have laws for that. If they bark too much, damage property, kill other animals, become a nuisance, etc, guess what? They have laws for that.

Other than that it doesn't do anything but generate some revenue. I haven't seen it do anything to stop hoarding, prevent free roaming dogs, stop nuisance barking, cut down on the number dogs in shelters or anything else.
100% agree.
 

Fran101

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#26
I would be totally 100% behind these laws if they actually did any good 99% of the time.

Most of the time,
A) people who don't care/don't want to/don't abide by laws anyway.. don't register their dogs anyway
B) Real hoarding situations/abuse/dog fighting/puppy mill situations get a total free pass and find ways to just scoot around these kinds of things regardless (kennel licenses, just not doing it, living outside city limits, not taking their dogs to the vet etc..)

so... C) Pet owners trying to abide by laws and be good dog owners do this and end up getting hassled, harrassed and nitpicked for NO. GOOD. REASON. like having 3 healthy dogs.. or being a small scale breeder.. or owning a breed the town doesn't approve of.
 

Aleron

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#27
I've never heard of home invasions for something as simple as not abiding a pet by-law. That would be the equivalent of them going through your house, grabbing your keys, and taking off with your car when they discovered you didn't have auto insurance.
Being accused of being a dog fighter is a far cry from not having auto insurance. The local flyball team practices in a storage building in a very commercial area. Someone reported that there was dog fighting going on in the building and said they heard it every Thursday night. The local cops came in force to "bust" the dog fighters...and found a bunch of people doing flyball instead. Funny story as it is but if it had been an individual's home, it probably wouldn't have been so lighthearted.

And as for other pet laws, it depends on the circumstances. Sometimes all it takes for things to go really bad is an AR minded AC officer with an agenda to get rid of breeders. If the laws are worded in a way that puts good, law abiding owners at risk for being searched because they have too many pets, bred their dog, didn't neuter their dog or some other choice that the government shouldn't really be involved in. Even if it is "never enforced", there is still a great potential for such laws to do harm in the wrong circumstance.
 

LauraLeigh

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#28
I would be totally 100% behind these laws if they actually did any good 99% of the time

Pet owners trying to abide by laws and be good dog owners do this and end up getting hassled, harrassed and nitpicked for NO. GOOD. REASON. like having 3 healthy dogs.. or being a small scale breeder.. or owning a breed the town doesn't approve of.
That's what I was going through, I live on 400 acres and had to get permission from my neighbor, close friend who did not care but what if that was not the case? And he is about 1500 feet at least away! And my only other neighbor is twice that in distance!!! Then they gave me a hard time because my dogs were not KC registered...

Meanwhile no one does anything about a nasty mill a few miles away!!!

It totally soured me on muncipal dog taxes being about anything but power tripping, money grabbing jerks... LOL
 

puppydog

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#29
That is what worries me. A police officer drunk on power and touting "the book".

He doesn't HAVE to check records, he could just take one of my dogs. And trust me, I WILL end up in jail for assaulting an officer!

I got pulled over in a roadblock, I was being fined because Paul forgot to renew the cars license. Another person was pulled over, had two toddlers standing on the back seat. When I asked why they were not getting fined for having an unrestrained child in the car, the answer was "there is no point, they just laugh at us".

It is all about colour in South Africa. If you are white you pay. If you are black or coloured, you don't. May sound racist or like an excuse, but it is not. I can swear to that. This dog law will be exactly the same. The gangsters in harbour with their pits covered in scars won't be touched, my well cared for paps are fair game.
 

elegy

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#30
I don't have a problem with registering/licensing pets, but I have a huge issue with pet limits. They do nothing to prevent hoarding, they do nothing at all except stress people out and put yet more pets in the shelter system.
 

ACooper

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#31
don't worry puppydog, you're not alone. It's nobody's business how many, what kind, intact or not or any other information about dogs I may or may not have.

If I abuse them, they have laws for that. If I starve them, they have laws for that. If they are loose, they have laws for that. If they bite, they have laws for that. If they bark too much, damage property, kill other animals, become a nuisance, etc, guess what? They have laws for that.

Other than that it doesn't do anything but generate some revenue. I haven't seen it do anything to stop hoarding, prevent free roaming dogs, stop nuisance barking, cut down on the number dogs in shelters or anything else.
RTH said it better than I was going to anyway, so I'll just repost his, LOL
 
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#32
Yea people don't like pet limit laws until they have a neighbor with 10 cared-for but ill-mannered dogs and a trashed yard and, say, they're trying to sell their house while their property values are dropping by the minute... or, say, trying to have a backyard BBQ and the neighbor dogs are being a nuisance and constantly disrupting it, or the dogs fence run with your own dog, or whatever. Things that aren't necessarily illegal but are quality of life issues if you have to live around that annoying dog owner.

Besides, these types of laws aren't designed so much to prevent hoarding situations as to give law enforcement the teeth to remove animals from a hoarding situation without having to prove that abuse or neglect is taking place (which can be a lengthy and contestable process).

Personally I don't see what the big deal is. But I live in a city with good AC services and I'm perfectly willing for my license and registration fees and information to pay for those services, including my dogs being collected and kept safe until they can be returned to me if they should happen to get loose.
 
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#33
I have to deal with stupid people's **** every single day of my life. i'm used to it. If they want their yard to look like ****, good for them. I have brown spots everywhere and a few dandelions and I'm sure that would drive others completely batty, **** 'em I don't care.

If their dogs run and charge fences, someone's going to hear about it. There are plenty of nusiance laws to deal with those issues. My dogs don't run fences when other dogs are there so it's not an issue to me.

if dogs are coming over and disrupting your BBQ, there are plenty of at large dog laws to take care of the issue. and most BBQ's i've been to make plenty of noise all on their own, at as much as some dogs.

I don't think law enforcement need more "teeth" if your dogs aren't cared for, take them. If they are, it's really nobody's business at all. The last place we lived we were criminals because we had 3 dogs. 3 of the best trained and behaved dogs that city has probably ever seen, yet technically I was a criminal. That's why I care. because all it would have taken was one nosey neighbor that doesn't like dogs to bitch and I'd be making some very hard decisions.

Never mind the neighbors I had comented repeatedly that they were so surprised to know I even had dogs and if they didn't see me outside with them all the time, they wouldn't believe any lived with us. it only would have taken one complaint for anything, and either I move or a loved pet is gone. and for what?

There are more than enough laws to deal with almost any scenerio that should arise.
 
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#34
*shrug* I see value in them, so we'll just have to disagree. These laws aren't there so AC can march house to house doing checks confiscating animals (why on earth would they want to waste their time and money doing so?), they're there so AC has an objective measure to enforce against nuisance owners. Care and cruelty laws, and even nuisance laws, are vague and subject to interpretation. "You can only have 3 dogs" is not.

I've lived with them all my life and the sky hasn't fallen on me yet. I've actually been in violation of them myself for most of my adult life as our city pet limit includes dogs + cats and our cats put us well over the limit, but never has anyone marched in to confiscate my animals nor have I spent any time worrying about it.
 

Lyzelle

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#37
so if they have 4 dogs and take the quiet one away, you think the law worked?
That wouldn't be the law's fault. It would be the fault/interpretation of the AC officer or police.

Dog fighting stories aren't a product of this law either. I'm sure it's happened without these by-laws in place. Memphis is pretty corrupt, and police can do anything to get the job done. They don't need a pet restrictions or registration by-law to do it. And AC officers are a joke, certainly.

But if you don't like your law enforcement, you don't stop making laws. That's a bit counter-productive.
 
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#38
and arbitrarily picking 2 or 3 or 4 animals, only 1 can be a dog, or saying 6 total, no more than 2 dogs, or 4 of any kind of animal, or any other number of combinations I've seen municipalities put forth in limiting the number of animals someone can regardless of their abilit to train, care for or live with animals is a bit silly.

They have laws upon laws to deal with things that are problems. me having 3 dogs is not, has not ever been, nor ever will be a problem for anybody else. They say I can only have 2. Once i even had 5 if you include dogs in for training. The horror of it all, i was still able to live peacefully among my neighbors and nobody even knew the difference.

you say something like this
That wouldn't be the law's fault. It would be the fault/interpretation of the AC officer or police.
and all I can say is really? if you have 4 dogs, they say you can only have 2 or 3 what do you think happens? Some places make you get rid of a dog, some make you pay a fine each day you keep the animal, some let you apply for a license. Some will take all your animals. NONE of which I think are good ideas at all. what do you think can happen when they say 2 dogs and you have more? they just have a coke and smile? some do, some don't, I'd rather not give them the option of chosing.

then you say this
Memphis is pretty corrupt, and police can do anything to get the job done. They don't need a pet restrictions or registration by-law to do it. And AC officers are a joke, certainly.
and then say if you don't like the law enforcement you don't stop making laws. So I really gotta ask, if the law enforcement is such a joke or completely corrupt and can do anything they want to get the job done, why would you say giving a completely inept or completely corrupt power, MORE power? I don't really follow the logic.

We have laws everywhere to deal with problems and nusiances. a barking dog can be dealt with, an aggressive dog can be dealt with. A dog that is running loose has an owner that is breaking a minimum of 2 municiple ordinances in almost every single town in this country. We have plenty of ways to punish those breaking laws. It won't matter if they have one dog or 5.

The number has nothing do to with it.
 

Beanie

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#39
The most trashed yards I've ever seen - and I've seen quite a few - aren't with people who own dogs. It's people who treat their backyard like a garbage dump. Number of dogs really doesn't have anything to do with that.

As for trying to have a BBQ and dogs being pests or dogs running the fence - what does number of dogs have to do with that?
There is a person a block over with a GSD who lives outside and barks all day and all night. It's a pattern bark too. Woof. Woof. WOOF-woof-woof. Woof. Woof. WOOF-woof-woof. All day, all night. One GSD. Not four or five or ten dogs, one. I also looked at a house where a small doxie lived in the backyard next door. Whenever we would step outside to look at the backyard or the back of the house, he would charge the fence and stand there barking non-stop.
How would a pet limit law do anything about either of these situations? In both cases they would be in perfect compliance with the pet limit law.
 

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